Imagine

One of the strongest ways of starting a presentation is to use the word - Imagine - and take the listener on a journey into your content. The story that you start with should be short and only a few lines, but shifts the listener from his world OUT THERE to your world and where you want his attention.

Here is an example. This comes from an article by James Lovelock about the state of the earth and global warming.

Imagine a young policewoman delighted in the fulfilment of her vocation; then imagine her having to tell a family whose child had strayed that he had been found dead, murdered in a nearby wood. Or think of a young physician newly appointed who has to tell you that the biopsy revealed invasion by an aggressive metastasising tumour. Doctors and the police know that many accept the simple awful truth with dignity but others try in vain to deny it.

Whatever the response, the bringers of such bad news rarely become hardened to their task and some

He then goes on to talk about having to break the news that the earth cannot pull itself back from the destruction that is to come.

What a dramatic and exciting way to open. He gets our attention right away and puts his idea (that of having to give us this awful news) in terms we can understand.

Try this with one of your presentations.
Imagine a company with a daycare centre full of little kids having fun while their parents work just a few feet away.

Imagine that you are the person at the end of the 911 telephone board. You have to figure out what the caller wants and needs, stay calm and get things done. That is how.....

For the full article see:

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article338830.ece